Benazepril (Lotensin) is an ACE inhibitor indicated for hypertension. Similar to its relatives lisinopril and enalapril, benazepril reduces the activity of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, which results in vasodilation and lower blood pressure.
This has been a post in the Pharmanotes series, which seeks to educate the public on the “Top 200” most prescribed medications. The contents within this post are scholarly and do not constitute as medical advice.
The mother of an 8-month-old girl was given a prescription for her baby for amoxicillin 400 mg twice daily. Amoxicillin is an antibiotic commonly used to treat various ear, nose, throat, chest, and skin infections. When dropping off the prescription at the pharmacy, a pharmacist asked the mother for the child’s weight, which was 20 pounds. When the mother picked up the medicine, the pharmacist gave her a 5 mL syringe to use to draw up each dose of the liquid medicine. The directions on the prescription said, “Amoxicillin (400 mg/5 mL), give 12 mL twice a day.” The pharmacist told the mother to give her child two full syringes of the medicine (5 mL each), and then 2 mL of another syringe of medicine.
via Following through on medicine safety concerns. Continue reading
City Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan’s office is still investigating what became of the drugs but believe they ended up on the thriving black market for prescription painkillers, where the more than 193,000 missing pills could fetch a total of about $5.6 million.
While serving as Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s pharmacy director for 14 years before his firing this spring, D’Alessando exploited his access to the hospital’s drug vault to grab oxycodone pills by the score: about 100 at a time when he started in January 2009, but 1,500 at a go by the time the scheme came to light this spring, said Kati Cornell, a spokeswoman for Brennan. Hospital officials first approached him April 1 about the disappearing drugs, and he signed out another 1,500 pills the next day, she said.
To account for the missing medicine, D’Alessandro made phony entries in an electronic inventory system to indicate that the drugs were being sent to a research pharmacy within the hospital, prosecutors said. The pharmacy wasn’t doing any oxycodone research at the time, and its staffers were unaware of the phony requisition slips, according to prosecutors.
via Pharmacy Boss Accused of Stealing 200,000 Oxy Pills « KRON4 – San Francisco Bay Area News. Continue reading
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